NDSU News

NDSU winter commencement ceremonies are scheduled for Friday, Dec. 16, at 4 p.m. in the Fargodome. The location will change to the Bison Sports Arena if the Bison football team hosts an NCAA playoff game during the week of commencement.

A total of 733 graduate, professional and undergraduate students are eligible to participate, and 520 have indicated they intend to march in the ceremony.

“This will be NDSU’s largest fall graduating class,” said Rhonda Kitch, associate registrar. “We’ll celebrate the academic success of more than 730 students at the ceremony.”

If the Bison host an NCAA football playoff game that weekend, the ceremony will take place at the Bison Sports Arena, which is adjacent to the Fargodome. According to Registrar Kristi Wold-McCormick, “Planning is underway to ensure that commencement is successful and memorable for our degree candidates and their guests, regardless of venue.” She said the location will be confirmed and communicated to graduates and the public by Sunday.

Adlina Paramarta, who will receive a Bachelor of Science in chemistry, has been selected to speak as the class representative. A dedicated international student who carries a 3.99 grade-point average, Paramarta is a native of the island of Java in Indonesia whose family came to Fargo in 2006, where she graduated from Fargo North High School. She has been highly involved in campus activities. She has been a College of Science and Mathematics Ambassador and participated in the International Student Association, Chemistry Club, Tennis Club and Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society. In addition, she served as a master of ceremonies for NDSU’s International Night.

The commencement soloist will be Chase Daniel Burkhart, a graduate of Grand Forks, N.D., Central High School, who is receiving a Bachelor of Music in vocal music education. He participated in numerous music performing ensembles such as NDSU Concert Choir, Madrigal Singers, Statesmen, Bison Arts Singers, University Band and the Opera Workshop productions of “Pirates of Penzance,” “Secret Garden” and “Die Fledermaus.” He also co-founded a student organization called the NDSU Songwriters Guild.

For commencement details and location updates, visit www.ndsu.edu/commencement.

NDSU is scheduled to host the first Northern Plains BEST Robotics regional competition on Saturday, Dec. 10, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Bentson-Bunker Fieldhouse at NDSU. BEST stands for “Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology.”

Sixteen teams from Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota schools will demonstrate how well their remote-controlled robots perform. The teams also will be judged on team exhibits, marketing presentations, engineering notebooks, spirit and sportsmanship.

The robots were designed and built through BEST Robotics, a program to encourage students to pursue careers in engineering, science and technology through a science and engineering-based robotics competition.

The 2011 program kicked off in September when 40 middle school and high school teams from three local hubs each received a kit of equipment and parts and a set of game rules. The teams were from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Canada.

Five weeks later, the teams tested their robots. Six weeks later, they participated in the robotics competition at their hub. Teams that advanced to the Northern Plains BEST regional competition either had the top-performing robot or won the BEST Award, which is based on a project engineering notebook, marketing presentation, team exhibit and interview, spirit and sportsmanship, and robot performance.

The three local hubs are Bison BEST at NDSU, which has been in existence for five years, and two new hubs, Wildcat BEST at the North Dakota State College of Science, Wahpeton, and Blue Hawk BEST at Dickinson State University. The addition of Wildcat BEST and Blue Hawk BEST made it possible to offer the regional competition at NDSU for the first time.

Students participating in the competition will be on the NDSU campus Dec. 8-10. In addition to competition activities, they will tour the campus, meet with other BEST teams at a social and pizza party, and attend a Fargo Force hockey game.

The robotics competition is free and open to the public. The event will also be streamed live at www.cateyenls.com.

NDSU track and field athlete Whitney Carlson has been selected as a top 30 honoree for the 2011 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Thirty women, 10 from each NCAA membership division, were selected to the top 30.

Carlson is the second NDSU student-athlete, and the second from the state of North Dakota, to earn the top 30 distinction at the Division I level. Laura (Hermanson) Januszewski also garnered the honor in 2009. Prior to the change in the award process in 2007, the Bison also had six student-athletes named state Woman of the Year honorees.

“The culmination of the many academic and athletic accomplishments of Whitney is highlighted by her being named a top 30 recipient for the NCAA Woman of the Year Honors,” said Lynn Dorn, women’s athletic director. ”This tribute is indeed an extraordinary honor. We salute the many exceptional achievements Whitney has earned in the classroom and in competition. Truly, Whitney defines the meaning of a student-athlete. Our pride is immeasurable.”

The Buchanan, N.D., native was a five-time All-American who also excelled in the classroom. She graduated with a 4.0 grade point average, and earned CoSIDA Academic All-America first team honors as a junior and senior.

Carlson was awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and was also received the NCAA Elite 88 Award at the 2011 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which is awarded to the competitor with the highest grade point average. She was named the 2011 Summit League Women’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and currently is attending dental school in Nebraska.

Carlson was named Summit League Field Athlete of the Year three times, a 17-time Summit League champion and was a league championship MVP five times. She set six school records over the course of her career.

Now in its 21st year, the Woman of the Year Award honors female student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academic achievement, athletics excellence, community service and leadership.

To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must have completed intercollegiate eligibility in her primary sport by the end of the 2011 spring season, graduated no later than the end of the summer 2011 term and achieved a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.5. Last year’s winner, Justine Schluntz, was an NCAA swimming champion and 2010 Rhodes Scholar from the University of Arizona.

Sharon Beverly, NCAA Woman of the Year selection chair and director of athletics and physical education at Vassar College, said the award is one of the most prestigious honors presented to a female student-athlete each year.

“This award catapults the recipient into the next phase of her life and paves the way for a successful future in any chosen profession,” Beverly said. “When you consider the academic and athletic accomplishments of each of the candidates for this award and the ways they have given back to society, the Woman of the Year honorees are the top echelon of NCAA role models.”

The top 30 honorees were nominated by conference and independent members and represent multiple sports. Three finalists will be chosen from each division to form the nine finalists for the Woman of the Year award.

The national winner will be chosen by the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics and announced in an Oct. 16 ceremony in Indianapolis.

Stop-N-Go owners Sheila Carney and Henry Knoll announced a gift of $2 million to NDSU and the athletic department’s Building the Competitive Edge $32 million campaign. The gift will go toward the naming of the Shelly Ellig Indoor Track and Field Facility.

NDSU President Dean L. Bresciani, along with Development Foundation Associate Executive Director Jason Wohlman and Director of Athletics Gene Taylor, accepted the gift.

Ellig, who died last year, was an avid philanthropist and sports enthusiast. His presence lives on throughout the region, Fargo-Moorhead community and NDSU. The university has the Ellig Sports Complex, which includes the outdoor track and field facility, and soccer and softball fields.

Bresciani said NDSU commands a powerful niche as a student focused, land grant research university, where athletics play an important role. “The generosity of friends like Stop-N-Go is critical to our ability to continue to serve our students and our state,” he said. “I’ve witnessed a remarkable level of commitment and enthusiasm, and on behalf of our student-athletes and the entire university, I want to thank these donors.”

The 78,000-square foot indoor track and field facility, which seats 1,000, includes a 200-meter, eight-lane track with 42-inch wide lanes with additional practice lanes on the straightaway. There also are multiple long jump, triple jump and pole vault runways, along with a shot put and weight throw sector on the infield.

Taylor said, “We’re very pleased with the generosity from Shelly Ellig. We’re excited to have his name again associated with an outstanding athletic facility here at NDSU. It’s very fitting to have this facility named after Shelly based on our long-term relationship with Shelly and Stop-N-Go.”

The Building the Competitive Edge Campaign will provide an extension and renovation of the Bison Sports Arena that will transform the facility and the surrounding area, including the track and field venue, into a leading Division I athletic complex. Additionally, it will serve as the “front door” venue, welcoming student-athletes and campus guests with the Bison Athletic Hall of Fame, Hall of Champions and various fan services and facilities.

A two-court basketball practice facility will be added to the southwest corner of the existing structure. The west-side addition will house human performance facilities, including strength training, sports medicine and rehabilitation areas. The renovated Bison Sports Arena also will have an academic center for student-athletes.

Fourteen architecture and landscape architecture students will have a big audience for their first ever design build project this month – approximately 300,000 Minnesota State Fairgoers.

The students have designed and are constructing a four-person, energy efficient cabin as an exhibit for the Eco-Experience section of the fair.  The goal is to educate fairgoers about state-of-the-art concepts in energy efficiency in the built environment.

The cabin, also called the Passive House cabin, is suited to a Northern Minnesota climate and can be heated by the energy equivalent of nine light bulbs. It makes use of many “free” passive heat sources such as heat generated by its occupants, waste heat from appliances, passive heat from the earth and heat from the sun.

“Our goal was to research, analyze, design and build a beautiful, low-energy structure that meets the Passive House performance criteria, on a mid-market construction budget,” said Malini Srivastava, adjunct architecture instructor who leads the Design Build Studio. “This design also takes into consideration carbon implications and resource use analysis, as a step toward achieving a sustainable, efficient and affordable goal.”

While the project is an educational exhibit for fairgoers, it also has provided an invaluable long-term, hands-on learning experience for the students. “The students have demonstrated immense creativity and spirit of innovation under very restrictive budget and strict performance goals,” Srivastava said.

It also has allowed students to develop strengths in various roles such as project manager, architect, fundraiser, accountant, interior designer, drafter, contractor, builder, web designer and graphics designer.

The Design Build Studio is the first Passive House to be built and demonstrated at the fair, according to Srivastava. This also is the first time that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has invited a student group to participate in the Eco-Experience, a major annual event concerning energy education.

After the fair, the structure will either be moved to a permanent location or dismantled and repurposed for other uses.

To see the ongoing progress on the house, visit http://ndsudesignbuild.com. For more information, contact malini.srivastava@ndsu.edu.

The Minnesota State Fair is scheduled Aug. 25-Sept. 5.

NDSU animal sciences professor Chung S. Park is among the researchers who presented at the Era of Hope scientific conference in Orlando, Fla., Aug. 2-5, hosted by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. Research by Park suggests that a pregnant mother’s diet containing certain nutrients can potentially reduce the risk of breast cancer in her female offspring.

In his research titled “In Utero Exposure to Dietary Methyl Nutrients and Breast Cancer Risk in Offspring,” Park studied 45 rats that were randomized into two groups. One group served as a control, while the other was fed a methyl-supplemented diet. The pups that were born were separated into groups based on the mother’s feeding regime. Females then received a chemical to induce breast cancer and were followed for tumor development. Study results showed offspring whose mothers received a methyl-supplemented diet had decreased tumor incidence and growth than the control group. They also had fewer tumors and fewer tumors that multiplied.

According to Park, augmenting the mother’s diet with lipotropic nutrients (methionine, choline, folate and vitamin B12) may boost methyl metabolism. This, in turn, may stimulate full development of the mammary gland to induce an epigenetic imprint in the mammary gland of the fetus, decreasing its breast cancer risk.

“The conclusions of this study suggest we may be able to prevent the development of breast cancer in daughters of women at risk for breast cancer by supplementing the mother’s diet during pregnancy,” said Park. “We look forward to exploring this study further to strengthen the implications of these initial findings.”

Park’s research interests include the nutritional regulation of animal growth, mammary development, lactation and mammary tumorigenesis. He earned his doctoral degree in nutritional physiology from Virginia Polytechnic and State University, a master’s degree in ruminant nutrition from the University of Georgia and a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Seoul National University, Korea.

The Era of Hope is one of the premier breast cancer research conferences. It joins scientists, clinicians and breast cancer advocates committed to advancing research on the prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. The conference features prominent scientists and clinicians with presentations of recent remarkable advances in breast cancer research funded by the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. More information is available at https://cdmrpcures.org/ocs/index.php/eoh/eoh2011.

Rebecca Huckeby has known she wanted to be in education for a long time. Her school experiences in Barnesville, Minn., were great, and she lists all her teachers as good role models and positive influences. She hopes to create for the next generation that same positive influence.

“Overall I just want to make a difference in adolescents,” she said. “It’s a hard time in life and I think if I could be a role model and build relationships with students, I would make a difference.”

Huckeby, a senior in family and consumer sciences education, was the 2011 Outstanding Student in the College of Human Development. She enjoys the child development and parenting aspects of her field of study and wants to use her skills to help teens learn how to make good decisions.

“Family and consumer sciences is a good subject area to affect change,” she said. “I think young girls especially go through a hard time fitting in and feeling valued.”
At NDSU, Huckeby is involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, the Human Development and Family Science Club and many other organizations in addition to volunteer work. Her most rewarding experience has come from being a resident assistant and helping other students acclimate to college life.

“One of my future goals is to be a high school counselor, so it was a good stepping stone for mentoring freshmen and building those relationships,” she said.

Huckeby hopes to continue her education to obtain a master’s degree in school counseling before finding a position at a school anywhere between Fargo and Minneapolis.

Bresciani names Rafert NDSU provost

North Dakota State University President Dean L. Bresciani announced today his selection of Bruce Rafert as NDSU’s next provost.

Rafert is Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Clemson University.  “Dr. Rafert brings a career-long level of recognized experience and success in enhancing the caliber of academic offerings from instruction to research,” Bresciani said. “His achievements on academic and scholarly fronts are exceptional on an internationally recognized basis.  He will be key to guiding NDSU, North Dakota’s first research university to reach the Carnegie  Commission’s highest national classification, toward even more contributions to North Dakota’s success.”

Rafert earned his doctorate at the University of Florida, where he later was named an outstanding alumnus. He has a research portfolio of more than $9 million in multidisciplinary research activities, spanning industry, state and federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, National Park Service, United States Air Force and the private sector. He has produced more than 130 scholarly publications, and brings 25 years of academic and project administration, including, while at Florida Institute of Technology, serving as chief scientist at the U.S. Air Force Malabar Test Facility and as the founding Director of the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy Observatory, located at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

Bresciani said the quality of the pool of candidates was impressive, at a level not before seen at NDSU, and credited the 17-member search committee, chaired by University Distinguished Professor Neil Gudmestad, and dedicated participation from the campus community for a successful search. Final candidates met for two days with a range of campus groups, who Bresciani later met with to gather extensive input. “Support for Dr. Rafert’s strengths was broadly and impressively expressed from the groups and individuals from whom I gathered feedback.”

Under Rafert’s leadership, Clemson’s graduate enrollment has grown from 2,300 to 4,100 students, Clemson’s global reputation has increased, and the university’s rising stature in national rankings has been widely noted. He oversees more than 130 graduate degree programs, including 40 doctoral programs. Rafert has had a key role in elevating Clemson to one of the top doctoral public institutions in the nation and has helped build a portfolio of graduate programs of national distinction.

The Provost will serve as the chief academic officer of NDSU, and provide increased coordination of all university scholarly and instructional activities. The vice presidents for Research, Creative Activities and Technology Transfer; Agriculture and University Extension; Information Technology; and Equity Diversity and Global Outreach will report to the president through the provost. Rafert, 61, will begin work at NDSU in July.